Showing posts with label empty city. Show all posts
Showing posts with label empty city. Show all posts

Monday, November 24, 2014

Yet another empty Chinese city - New York version

Stumbled across another empty Chinese city, this one thanks to @TheCreditBubble and his blog post

He so kindly provided a video link showing the full scale of the project.  While some may claim there is progress and construction still going on, please compare the level of activity to the massive size of the project.



Here's a Google Maps screenshot of the place.  Just look at all those skyscrapers that need to be filled.



So what happens when all those skyscrapers go up, no one fills them, and the 'need' for more slows down? Iron ore prices fall back into the earth

ht @soberlook

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Jim Chanos is still short China - video

The video I previously posted has incited a new round of Chinese Empty City Watching.  Jim Chanos, the famous short seller, was recently on CNBC explaining his rationale and hinting at his short positions.



Link to video

How many more times China can continue down this path is unknown.

Monday, March 4, 2013

60 Minutes discovers the Chinese Housing Bubble

Last night 60 Minutes ran a piece on the housing bubble of China:



Link to video
I have written about the Chinese Housing Bubble at length and it is nice to see the popular media pick up on it as well.  I wonder how much longer this can go on.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Ordos -- Time to double down

Nearly two years ago I highlighted the city of Ordos, China and how it appeared local municipalities and investors were building an empty city with no hope of a positive return on investment.

Fast forward to present day and the same reporter made a return visit to see what has changed. While there have been a few people moving in, residential construction continues at the usual Chinese breakneck pace.  The new video show the same empty boulevards but with more skyscrapers being built in the background.

(direct link to Youtube video)


Melissa Chan provides more details in here blog entry

She interviewed the same person, Mr. Chovanec, as last time and he provides the reasons why supposedly rational people would invest in an empty city and expect a positive return.  Mr. Chovanec provides more examples of bubble behavior in China in a recent blog entry titled This is What a Bubble Looks Like

China's response to the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 was to tell the banks to lend, and they did. The resulting excessive credit growth just exacerbated the already imbalanced situation brewing in their country.  When the next monetary event comes with Greece's default I will not be around (metaphorically) to see if they will be able to 'fix' the problem again.

Google maps link to Ordos

Friday, June 3, 2011

Weekend linkage

Here's some weekend reading/listening for you.  I really should do this more often so you can see what I'm looking at:

Saudi Arabia going ahead with building 16 nukes:  Even after Fukushima they have decided to go ahead.

Why didn't Fukushima #2 (Daini) meltdown as well?  Very interesting ideas as to why the second power plant complex did not have the problems #1 (Daiichi) experienced.  It may be merely luck and location or it may be the newer powerplant designs.

Nuclear regulatory issues.  Obviously a very large problem as a 'captured' regulator can allow serious problems to develop.

Carmen Reinhart discusses financial repression in developed economies.  If you think short term rates will rise shortly I think you are wrong.  Financial repression is a broad term but a clear example is keeping short term interest rates below inflation (a negative real rate) This slowly inflates away the debt problem.  Will America and Western Europe be able to pull it off?

China's empty cities, again -- A more recent article on Ordos' empty new city

China's debt writeoffs are just the beginning -- The opera of excessive credit growth and very lax underwriting standards is starting to get to the good part.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

More on China's empty cities

One problem with satellite photos is you don't know what has happened since taken. One may legitimately posit an apartment complex that looks empty in the image may now be filled to capacity and teeming with life.  A recent expose by a journalist on the ground demolishes those theories.

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601007/n/China-s-Ghost-Cities
Watch the video and see the numerous empty towers of apartments. It's a pre-made ghost town.

Here's one insta-city I found a few weeks ago: Chenggong aka Kunming

What is most impressive about the apartment complex shown is how they built the entire place without adding any roads yet.  Hopefully they'll get around to it. Zoom out and look around (both north and east) and you can see the scale of this new city.  Like the video above almost all of this new Chenggong appears unused.

Take a look at the photos from this area. (Panoramio link) and see all the buildings going up and completely empty roads.  There's just too many completely empty homes and roads devoid of life.

ht:  Also Sprach Analyst